The campaign displayed the huge divisions between the two major parties. The Conservative's key issues were employment, economic growth and defence. Labour's Manifesto pledged to leave the EEC, abolish the House of Lords, abandon Britain's nuclear deterrent by cancelling Trident and removing Cruise - a heady mix of far left thinking, dubbed by Gerald Kaufman "the longest suicide note in history", "although, at barely thirty-seven pages, it only seemed interminable" noted Roy Hattersley. Over the campaign Labour were repeatedly forced to moderate their views, especially on defence.

On the day the opposition vote was almost evenly split between the Alliance and Labour. The Labour vote fell by over 3 million from 1979, with a national swing of almost 4% towards the Conservatives. The Conservative vote actually fell slightly but the disarray of their opponents gave them a majority of 144 and Labour had its worst performance since 1918.

Foot resigned soon after the election and was succeeded by Neil Kinnock.

The Independent Republican elected in the 1979 election died in 1981. In the ensuring by-election the seat was won by an Anti-H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner who then died and was succeeded by an Anti-H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner. He defended and lost his seat standing for Sinn Fein who contested seats in Northern Ireland for the first time since 1959.

This election was fought under revised boundaries. One significant change was the increase in the number of seats allocated to Northern Ireland from 12 to 17.